Every day a new startup, app or company is launching new tools for us to use in hopes of making our digital marketing lives easier. As things change and evolve we can’t help but continue trying out new tools constantly. So lately we have used quite a few new digital tools and below is what we’ve found!
Canva (Business): A simple new way to design, Canva gives you everything you need to easily turn ideas into stunning designs. The best part about Canva is that you don’t really need to be a designer and you do not have to be incredibly tech savvy to build some amazing images for your brand. The recent launch of Canva for business has gotten us excited (ps they are offering 2 months free). Not only do you have all of the amazing benefits of Canva but you can have a team stream and share both assets and templates with your team. This is incredibly useful if you have a team that doesn’t always sit under the same roof or if you are a small scrappy startup like us with tons of things to juggle. So far we love it and think you will too!
Outbrain: As a content discovery tool. Outbrain places your content (blogs) as recommendations on the web’s largest content publishers including sites like CNN.com, People and ESPN. We have slowly been testing out Outbrain to break into the Content Marketing part of our marketing plans. So far we love seeing our content be spread across in other areas and are hopefully attracting new consumers to our blog and eventually tools. Their team is super helpful but so far it’s been a bit hard to drill down to the transparency of where posts are being displayed and if we can select the best display locations. (ps they also have a special right now if you want to give it a try!)
NewsCred: Allows brands to easily manage content creation, distribution, and measurement . We are actually using this great tool now to post this very article! Just a short time in we are exploring everything it has to offer especially for managing and posting our blog along with sharing it to our relevant social media sites. We are looking forward to ways to leverage NewsCred to really get our content marketing going.
Slack: A messaging app for teams puts all communication in one place, integrating with the tools and services you use every day. We’ve been using this tool for awhile and have found that it really helps eliminate pointless emails and pulls the team together. Sometimes our entire team isn’t in the same office and it’s super easy to stay in touch, share updates and be ready for anything. Integrating with tons of different tools to help keep your to do list small and tidy we are huge fans. If you are wondering why to get your team on slack, check out this great article.
Todoist: Manage tasks anywhere to achieve more everyday in work and life. As a list person, I’ve been obsessed for awhile with Todoist. You can create projects, add tasks with deadlines, notes, etc to keep yourself organized (bonus access on phone, laptop, etc). If you go with a business plan you can assign and share tasks with your team and have a simple interface to keep your team organized.
Toggl: Time tracking software built for speed and ease of use allows you to easily track time, sort by projects or clients and bill accordingly. Have you ever gone through a day and felt like “where did the day go”? Well I’ve found it useful to create projects and track my time on projects. This gives you an idea of how long you are spending on various projects (And also feel accomplished #HighFive). Also for any of our freelance friends out there this is an amazing tool providing reports to submit with your invoices to show the hours you are billing and what your time was spent on.
HootSuite Chrome Extension: Quickly and easily share content to your social networks from anywhere on the web. In addition to already having a partnership with one of the world’s largest social media tool, we love using HootSuite for our social media. In addition, we love the chrome extension. Have you ever read an article and then thought I should share this article on our brand page but realize the timing doesn’t make sense or you’ve posted too much that day? Clicking on the extension allows you to add it to your account and schedule it for later with just a click of a button. If you use HootSuite you must give it a try!
What tools have you discovered or used more often recently? Share your favorites with us!
